%0 Journal Article
%T Adaptation Mechanisms of Small Ruminants to Environmental Heat Stress
%A Adam Abied
%A Haile Berihulay
%A Lin Jiang
%A Xiaohong He
%J Archive of "Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI".
%D 2019
%R 10.3390/ani9030075
%X Heat stress is an intriguing factor that negatively influences livestock production and reproduction performance. Sheep and goat are among the livestock that can adapt to environmental heat stress via a combination of physiological, morphological, behavioral, and genetic bases. Sheep and goat are able to minimize adverse effect of high thermal stress by invoking behavioral responses such as feeding, water intake, shade seeking, and increased frequency of drinking. Their morphological mechanisms are comprised of body shape and size, light hair color, lightly pigmented skin, and less subcutaneous fat, and the physiological means are that of increased respiration rate (RR), increased sweating rate (SW), reduced metabolic rate, and change in endocrine function. Adaptation in terms of genetics is the heritable trait of animal characteristics which favor the survival of populations. For instance, genes like heat shock proteins 70 (HSP70) and ENOX2 are commonly expressed proteins which protect animals against heat stress
%K adaptation
%K behavioral
%K morphological
%K heat stress
%K physiological
%K small ruminant
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6466405/